1811 Château Lafite Rothschild

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 96 points

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  12/3/2011 - Dave Canada wrote: 96 Points

  The Tenth Annual Stonefields Dinner (Guelph, ON, Canada): The piece de la resistance…the focal point of the dinner. This wine was actually afforded its own course with no food at all. The note along with it said “A quiet contemplation of ancient wine”. After all of the issues that Sarah, the head sommelier, had been having with some of the older wines, were are all huddled around her as she dove into opening this ancient wine. As a testament to her talent, she was able to get the cork out in one piece. When we had a chance to look at the cork, it had either 1811 or 1812 stamped over the Domaine Lafite Rothschild cork. It was understood that this bottle had been re-corked at the chateau roughly 35-40 years ago but there was no sticker or anything at the bottle to indicate this except for some glue on the back bottom of the bottle where he thought the sticker might have been placed. Once we tasted the wine, we were all quite convinced that it was not in fact an 1811 Lafite. The host and others from the dinner all crowded around and we discussed it for a few minutes to no real resolution except that it was really quite nice but probably not an 1811 Lafite.
  
  Medium ruby garnet in colour, the nose was spectacular with complex notes of cedar, leather, cassis, currants, blackberries, and forest floor. The palate was equally complex and transitioned to long and pretty finish. I am very skeptical that this is 200 year old Bordeaux….the colour and flavor profile simply do not match a 200 year old wine…..my stab in the dark is that this is a post 1945 Bordeaux (45,47, 49, 53) from a very good producer, possibly even Lafite.

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